Fossil plants, Vol. 3 : $b A text-book for students of botany and geologySeward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Science
Fossil plants, Vol. 3 : $b A text-book for students of botany and geology
Seward, A. C. (Albert Charles)
Paleobotany
The average diameter of the stem is 3 cm.: the section reproduced in
fig. 483, A, has a maximum breadth of 3·5 cm.; the leaf-bases cut at
different levels give an irregular contour to the surface like that of
a _Lepidodendron_. An axillary bud, either reproductive or vegetative,
is seen at _b_ consisting of a short axis bearing crowded bud-scales.
The leaves are crowded and according to Maslen have a phyllotaxis of
⁸⁄₂₁: the lamina is linear like that of _Cordaites_ with 16 collateral
bundles in the petiole. The presence of a meristematic band at the
base of the lamina affords evidence of a deciduous habit. The large
size of the pith is a striking feature with its central tissues in
the form of transverse diaphragms and a narrower peripheral zone
of solid parenchyma (fig. 483, A, _a_). The secondary wood of the
stele is composed of tracheids with 2–3 contiguous alternate rows of
bordered pits on the radial walls, but none on the tangential walls.
In the stem shown in fig. 483, A, the secondary wood is preserved
only in patches. Numerous blunt teeth varying in prominence project
into the pith; these consist chiefly of serially disposed centrifugal
tracheids distinguished by their spiral and scalariform structure and
by the medullary rays which are broader than those in the more external
xylem. Further reference is made to these perimedullary strands in the
description of the leaf-traces. The medullary rays are uniseriate and
usually 1–6 cells in depth: beyond the secondary wood is a cambium
and a cylinder of secondary phloem (fig. 483, D, _ph_²) consisting of
tubular elements, presumably sieve-tubes, and elongated secretory sacs.
The pericycle is composed of several rows of rather large and short
cells and has an ill-defined outer boundary. A succession of arcs of
periderm-like tissue and phellogen, which may invade the pericycle
and phloem, forms a prominent feature in the cortex; radially placed
bands of fibres similar to those in _Lyginopteris_ and other genera
occur in the outer cortex. At the edge of the pith the more prominent
projections of xylem are arranged in pairs (fig. 483, B) and as each
pair travels downwards the component strands gradually fuse[717]. Each
bundle of a double trace consists internally of an arc of centripetal
xylem, the elements of which are arranged in rows (fig. 483, B, _cp_),
with a single protoxylem group in the middle of the inner face, _px_.
It is not clear whether any primary centrifugal tracheids are present,
but there are indications that such are occasionally represented.
In most cases the primary xylem of the leaf-traces is exarch, but
the existence of mesarch bundles is not improbable. The bulk of each
foliar bundle is formed of a fan-shaped mass of secondary centrifugal
xylem (fig. 483, B, _cf_) and an island of parenchyma occurs next
the protoxylem. There is no clearly defined boundary between the
outer or centrifugal xylem of the leaf-traces and the tracheids of
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